Saturday, February 24, 2018

Bob Hale's Cartoon College: How to Draw Cats

My buddy Brian went to an estate sale recently and found a neat pile of old "Cartooning for Profit" manuals, plus this incredibly fun Bob Hale Cartoon College lesson #3 packet from 1962 on How to Draw Cats-- my favorite animal!! Brian (of MondoPiece Theatre fame) was also cool enough to give all of these great finds to me!! THANKS AGAIN, MAN!! Anyway, I'll spare you the other overly excited and rather long winded introduction pages by Bob Hale himself (except for one, this way you get a proper taste of the artistic enthusiasm he has for all budding young arteests) --and just like a feline, we'll pounce right in with the main point of everything, by golly-- drawing pussy cats!! Hale possessed a very cute, very unique style, and these pages are also a slick showcase on the differences between inking your creations in with a pen vs. a brush.

Now get to work drawing-- and with hours upon hours upon nine lifetimes upon reincarnations, very soon you too can be an ultra rich and famous artist-- just like Bob Hale!

This must be where Don Bluth learned how to draw cats, too. It's just fantastic draftsmanship, of course; but with those brawny kangaroo feet and the strange, low ear placements, every single one of these things looks like a mouse instead of a cat to me. Maybe. Or maybe something else. The original Animaniacs!

About Me

(aka Steve Banes) Editor / co-editor of IDW's Chilling Archives of Horror Comic Books: ZOMBIES, RETURN OF THE ZOMBIES, DEVIL TALES, and MUMMIES, as well as co-host of the bi-monthly HAUNTED HORROR comic series and HAUNTED LOVE miniseries. (All image scans and photography by me from items found in my own personal collection-- except where noted.)